The Tocharian Mummies



Cherchen Man



Cherchen Man 





The Woman in Yellow


  
Photographs by Jeffrey Newbury 
  
Published in Discover Magazine, vol., 15 (4) April,
  1994. 


 


  
In 1987 Victor Mair, a Professor of Chinese at the University of Pennsylvania,
  discovered some remarkably well preserved human mummies in a museum in
  the Chinese Province of Xinjiang. For a satellite image of the area click
  here. The mummies are of particular interest
  in that they are Caucasian not Chinese. More than 100 mummies have been
  excavated by archaeologists, some of them date to 2,000 B.C.
  
Earlier this century archaeologists working in the same area of Xinjiang
  found evidence of an extinct Indo European language, Tocharian. An example
  of some of the similarities between Tocharian and other Indo European languages
  is shown here.


 

Some Japhetic* (Indo-European)
Numerals

(After Parsons 1767; and Mallory 1989)



 
 Irish
 Latin
 Greek
 Tocharian

 1
 aon
 unus
 hen
 sas

 2
 do
 duo
 duo
 wu

 3
 tri
 tre
 treis
 tre

 4
 ceathair
 quattuor
 tettares
 stwar

 5
 cuig
 quinque
 pente
 pan

 6
 se
 sex
 hex
 sak

 7
 seacht
 septern
 hepta
 spat

 8
 ocht
 otto
 okto
 okat

 9
 naoi
 novem
 ennea
 nu

 10
 deich
 decem
 deka
 sak

 100
 cead
 centurn
 hekaton
 kant

 


  
* Noah's three sons were Japeth,
  Ham, and Sem.
  
Tocharian manuscripts were found in Buddist monasteries and inscriptions
  and paintings have also been found in caves. The mummies are therefore
  the remains of an early Indo European speaking group that colonized into
  the area from the west.
  
The Tocharians were agriculturalists. They cultivated wheat and millet,
  and herded cattle, sheep, and goats. There is also evidence horse riding.
  The clothing worn by the mummies was made of kemps, the coarse outer hair
  of sheep. It was died in various colors, red, green, blue, and brown, and
  some of it was woven in a plaid design.
  
The details of their agricultural system have not yet been reported
  in detail. Presumably they used some form of irrigation. Pastoralism is
  still very important in this part of China.